Speed of response saved lives

WO2 Brett Campbell, Defence administrative assistant at the Jakarta Embassy, was taking part in the Bali 10s rugby competition and was alerted to the explosion by a phone call at about 12.30am.

He relayed messages through the night and, in the morning, gathered the spouses of ADF members in one place for safety before going to the consulate to provide assistance.

After working at the consulate most of the day, WO2 Campbell went to the airport at about 3.30pm to receive the first AME flight.

While patients were treated and transported, time on the ground was ticking over for the pilots, who had a limited window before departing for Australia.

The AME team put 14 patients on the Hercules before the doctor called a halt, ruling that any more would exceed the ability of the medical staff to care for them.

It was decided that the AME teams were able to provide care equal to that available from the hospitals, because of their depleted medical supplies, so all patients were moved to the airhead triage area.

“The military response and the actions of the AME crews and everyone involved was pretty stunning – I have no doubt lives were saved because of the speed of the response,” he said.

“Particularly the RAAF doctor who revived the patient who arrived dead – if I’m ever that badly injured, he’s the guy I want looking after me.

“The military response and the actions of the AME crews and everyone involved was pretty stunning – I have no doubt lives were saved because of the speed of the response.

“Particularly the RAAF doctor who revived the patient who arrived dead – if I'm ever that badly injured, he's the guy I want looking after me.

“The other thing was the huge amount of support we got from the Indonesians. Immigration, customs, the air force personnel, the fire station manager – all those people went out of their way to help us with our job.”

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